The film that changed my life + Al Pacino | The Guardianhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/series/film-that-changed-my-life+alpacino
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The film that changed my life: Richard Schiffhttps://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/apr/25/film-changed-life-richard-schiff
The Panic in Needle Park by Jerry Schatzberg (1971)<p>It's a movie about junkies that was shot in my neighbourhood, when I was 14 or 15. They shot it mostly at the Blimpie's [a sandwich shop] – <em>my</em> Blimpie's – on 71st Street in New York. I saw people I knew in that film, playing stickball. All this, and the fact that it offers a very unsentimental depiction of street life, struck me quite hard. I didn't realise it was possible to have films like this – it just didn't feel like it had been done up to that point. It's what you call hard-core realism, I guess.</p><p>Al Pacino, who stars in the film, was as much as anyone the reason why I got into this business. His movies in the 70s were just phenomenal and have influenced the way that I work to this day. Years later, when I was working with him on a film, I talked to him about <em>The Panic in Needle Park</em>. He used it as an example of how the nature of the business has changed – how back then, everyone in Hollywood wanted a piece of the film and nowadays you couldn't find a backer to make it for more than a million bucks. "It would be the lowest low budget of the low budgets, just because of the nature of the material and the script," he said. We talked about it for a while, just a couple of actors discussing a movie...</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/apr/25/film-changed-life-richard-schiff">Continue reading...</a>FilmAl PacinoCultureSat, 24 Apr 2010 23:07:33 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/apr/25/film-changed-life-richard-schiffPhotograph: Chris Jackson/Getty ImagesActor Richard Schiff arrives at the premiere screening of The Infidel in London on 8 April. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty ImagesPhotograph: Chris Jackson/Getty ImagesActor Richard Schiff arrives at the premiere screening of The Infidel in London on 8 April. Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty ImagesRichard Schiff2010-04-24T23:07:33Z